The Swedish Wave

Here is a smorgasbord of Swedish bands playing a new wave of garage rock and punk:

Millencolin: With their March album “Home From Home” (Burning Heart / Epitaph), their fifth U.S. full-length, the skateboard-loving pop punkers complete the career arc of most Orange County bands: from hard-core to ska to pop.

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Sahara Hotnights: From northern Sweden, an all-female answer to the Hives, including look-alike sisters Jennie Asplund on guitar and Johanna Asplund on bass. The release next month of “Jennie Bomb” (on the Jetset label) should establish them as the new punk darlings.

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The Hellacopters: Pure garage from a band with hair and guitar hooks like Humble Pie’s. “High Visibility” is the polished album version; “Cream of the Crap” (both Gearhead) is the trash-can collection of such gems as its version of Iggy Pop and James Williamson’s “I Got a Right.”

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The Demons: More energy than the Hives but less craft. On “... Come Bursting Out!” (Gearhead), the Demons come on with a ’77 punk attitude and a guitar sound reminiscent of Fu Manchu or Queens of the Stone Age. A yet-untitled album is set for fall release.

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The Nomads: Stockholm garage rock’s elder statesmen lacked the polish or contemporary bite of their younger counterparts on 2001’s “Up-Tight” (Sympathy for the Record Industry), but many of their dozen or so releases (nine in the U.S.) are considered classics.

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Citizen Bird: Its second album, “Citizen Bird,” was released this year on Stinky Records. With a more psychedelic, moody, emo punk sound, Citizen Bird is less raucous than the Seeds and darker, like the Stranglers.

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Backyard Babies: You can’t be a Swedish rocker if you don’t own a copy of its second release, “Total 13.” Although subsequent releases are not as high-energy as the Hives or D.O.L.L., the band has the attack of the Ramones with traces of Cheap Trick power pop and Hollywood glam-metal a la Hanoi Rocks.

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The Robots: Its 2000 release “Day of the Robots (Man’s Ruin)” is a Robert Williams painting become pure sound, with singer Odd coming on like a rockabilly space alien.

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Puffball: The album sleeve for its U.S. debut Gearhead release, “The Super Commando,” says, “Puffball stays true to the anti-ska movement.” Blazing fast, straight-ahead garage, with a singer rasping like Motorhead’s Lemmy.

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The Flaming Sideburns: The 2000 album “It’s Time to Testify, Brothers and Sisters” (Bad Afro) is purist ‘60s-’70s rock ‘n’ roll, with elements of Detroit proto-punk, Rolling Stones, hard R&B; soul and garage.

Dean Kuipers